Rhodes Island does not exist.

After all, there's a price to pay for staying here.

The person lying inside would probably rather be moved to the eighth floor to be surrounded by noise than enjoy the tranquility while dragging this broken body around.

Room 404

Yelena

The doctor stood in front of a ward, gazing at the door number and patient's name hanging above.

He was impressed by the name.

"One of the leaders of the Ursus Infected Guerrilla, he was originally an ally of the Reunion Movement, but due to strong dissatisfaction with the large number of casualties and the massacre of civilians caused by the Reunion Movement during the Chernobog incident, he unilaterally terminated his alliance with the Reunion Movement and offered assistance to the Infected and victims on Rhodes Island. He was later seriously injured in an ambush by the Reunion Movement and is now receiving treatment on Rhodes Island."

The description of Yelena in the operative resume on his desk reads as follows.

Ah, that's right, operator resume.

Because Rhodes Island has reached an agreement with the guerrillas and Yelena herself, if Yelena recovers from her injuries at Rhodes Island, she will join Rhodes Island.

With that thought in mind, the professor knocked three times on the door, then pushed it open and went inside.

Then, his vision was filled with a huge mountain.

No, it's less like a mountain and more like a person who is like a mountain.

The elderly Wendigo sat on a folding stool beside Yelena's hospital bed, his head bowed, a head that had once stood proudly on the battlefield.

The doctor couldn't help but wonder if that small stool could really withstand the pressure from the imposing figure before him.

However, before he could fully calculate the formula in his mind, the old Wendigo, known as "Patriot" or Bozokasti, had already stood up.

"Rhodes Island Doctor, you've come to see Yelena?"

He was fully aware of his physique, so after standing up, he stepped back to a corner of the room, leaving a passageway for the doctor.

“Ah, it’s alright, Mr. Patriot, you don’t need to be so formal.” The Doctor quickly waved his hand. “I just wanted to do my duty and see if the wounded and the sick needed any help. But since you’re here on Frostnova, I won’t bother you any longer.”

"It's alright, you are the host, we are grateful for your care, and besides, my daughter likes it here."

When Bozokast mentioned his daughter, he would always glance at Froststar, who was lying in a coma on her sickbed.

Although Wendigo's head was born with an almost deformed shape, making it impossible to see his expression, the Doctor could still read the tenderness in his eyes.

Perhaps for a veteran like him, gentleness is something reserved for his family.

Just like when Kal'tsit looked at Amiya.

Thinking this, the Doctor sat down on the other side of Frostnova, meeting Patriot's gaze.

A brief silence fell over the room.

Until the patriots speak again.

"Doctor, I've heard that it was you who accepted many members of the Integration Movement?"

He raised a topic.

"Yes, but I can still distinguish between friend and foe, so I only accept prisoners who are willing to surrender, after all, they are also infected," the doctor replied.

Patriot pondered this answer for a long time.

"Those who seek survival care not for dignity. Among them are thugs and villains who slaughter the innocent; do they deserve to be saved?"

"Haha." The Doctor gave a wry smile. "Dr. Kal'tsit also questioned me about this matter, and it was before we decided to set off. But to be honest, I really don't know how to decide in this moral dilemma. Maybe I'm like Instructor Dobermann said, only suitable for saving people and not for killing them. Otherwise, why would I have created Rhodes Island in the first place?"

Patriot shook his head.

“Killing itself makes no difference. I am one of those who have committed slaughter, but now I sit here with you. Therefore, I am also unqualified to judge them.”

"Perhaps, the right path is to be like you."

"But, knowing only how to save and not how to eliminate is also a dead end."

-

Thank you segment.

Thank you for the monthly pass, Mad King Cú Chulainn.

Chapter 19, The First Bloodshed on Rhodes Island

The doctor visited almost all the wards on the fourth floor, except for room 402, which was the duty room.

Most of the patients on the fourth floor are currently in a coma. Half of them are former members of Reunion, the rest are Rhodes Island operators, and there is one who belongs to both Reunion and Rhodes Island.

She had no name, only a code name called "w".

Although the code name was sometimes a bit of a mouthful, the doctor got used to it over time.

After all, she was away from home most of the year, and the Doctor didn't have many opportunities to communicate with her. Moreover, W didn't seem to like the Doctor's way of dealing with people, so even when she came back, she would intentionally avoid communicating with the Doctor.

The doctor expressed his understanding of this.

Ah, of course, he can understand almost everything.

What can a commander who gets criticized by his staff for being too good-tempered not understand?

"Phew, thank goodness she's not awake yet, otherwise she would definitely give me a bad look again."

After checking on W's condition, the doctor gently closed the door to W's ward and slowly left.

Just then, the communicator in his pocket rang.

"Thank goodness, if I had left a moment later, W would probably have been woken up."

As the doctor took out his incessantly ringing communicator, he inwardly marveled at the subtlety of his departure.

A name was lit up on the communicator's display screen.

【Gavial】

He answered the phone.

"Hello, Doctor? I'm in the ward on the eighth floor. Something's come up. Could you come over? Dr. Kal'tsit is still in surgery, and I can't get in touch with Amiya. We need someone to take charge here..."

"Eighth floor? What happened on the eighth floor?" The doctor sensed a hint of unease in Gavial's tone.

This kind of feeling is not something she would normally experience.

She's the type who wouldn't even blink an eye if she punched and kicked a patient while treating them, and she could even argue that it was "medical treatment."

“One of the infected patients died; he was from the Reunion Movement.”

she says.

-

As mentioned before, most of the injured in the communal ward on the eighth floor did not have serious injuries, so they were basically not in life-threatening danger. Otherwise, they would not have been assigned to the communal ward.

However, before any deaths had occurred in the fourth-floor intensive care unit, a death occurred in the eighth-floor communal ward.

This is rather strange.

The doctor was deep in thought as he stood in the elevator car heading to the eighth floor.

It wasn't until the elevator doors opened in front of him that he realized all his thinking had been unnecessary.

"This is a hospital! What are you all shouting about! What are you all shouting about!"

"Are you the only ones who have lost loved ones? Are you the only ones who have been oppressed? Or are you the only ones who have contracted Oripathy?"

"Quiet down, all of you! Those who are sick, stay in your beds. Those who aren't, go squat in a quiet place! Damn it, don't you know how to look around? Or do you think that making a scene will solve the problem, that making a scene will calm the hatred, or that it will bring people to uphold justice for you?"

“There are a few of you I don’t even want to talk about. You guys cry and wail in your blankets every night. I’ve looked at your resumes, and they don’t say you’re anything particularly tragic or resentful. You seem to be just a few old nobles who broke their legs while fleeing, right? But the complaints I’ve received from those seriously ill people are thicker than the stacks of cash you used to collect while sitting at your desks!”

"Weeping day and night, are you planning to cry Victoria's Theresis to death or the Ursus Emperor of Saint-Germain to death? If the Doctor hadn't forbade it, I would have already—"

“Gavial”.

A man in a hooded black coat stood behind her, speaking calmly.

Gavial then realized that everyone in the white hall was no longer looking at her.

“Violence against patients is not permitted.” The doctor looked at the green-haired Adaklis in front of him and shook his head.

"I know... I know."

Seeing that the Doctor was behind him, Gavial's temper softened a bit. "I just... I only said those things because I was angry."

“I understand.” The doctor nodded, his deep eyes meeting her amber pupils.

Then, his gaze shifted from Gavial's face to a spot he had noticed since entering the room.

The pristine white bed was stained with a splash of bright red.

The intense, deep crimson of blood seeped under the sheets, the viscous liquid clinging to the iron bars of the hospital bed, some leaving bloodstains, while others clung on, refusing to drip.

However, the victim's remains are not here; they have probably already been moved elsewhere.

After all, infected people are different from ordinary people. Their remains are a kind of biohazard. If they are not handled carefully and in accordance with the standard procedures, I'm afraid that all the normal people on this floor will be infected by Originium.

"Who is the deceased?" the doctor asked.

“A prisoner of the Reunion Movement encountered one of our squads while fleeing the main Reunion force and surrendered immediately, stating that he had no intention of being an enemy,” Gavial replied.

"What was the cause of death?" the doctor continued, as if conducting an interrogation.

“Killed by an Ursus refugee with a smashed medicine bottle…died on the spot.” Gavial paused.

"Then, what about the killer?" the doctor asked again.

“He’s already been taken to the cell by the operators. The riotous scenes you just saw were because of this incident.” Gavial sighed.

"Understood, I'll go check the fifth floor in a bit."

The doctor had to admit that this was a problem he hadn't considered initially.

It wasn't until the communal wards were overflowing with wounded soldiers and refugees who had been brought back that he began to seriously consider the possibility of such a thing.

But just like what Kal'tsit said to him.

"If you want to refuse, it's best not to agree in the first place, otherwise regretting it later will be considered a betrayal."

What else could he do?

To prevent potential bloodshed, should we first eliminate those who might cause it?

Or, isolate them?

Isolation is the first and foremost impossible.

Although Rhode Island is a sixteen-story mobile hospital, the actual space available to accommodate patients is not that much.

Moreover, who can guarantee that isolation measures will accurately separate all those who might have conflicts?

Humans are free.

Indulgence breeds chaos, while restraint breeds rebellion.

This is the first bloodshed on Rhodes Island caused by hatred, and the Doctor cannot guarantee that it will not happen again.

He stood in the center of the bloody scene, feeling dizzy and disoriented.

Chapter 20, Part 20: Victim Guilt

Ultimately, more guards were assigned to the eighth floor to prevent such an incident from happening again.

This is a last resort.

After all, a hospital ward shouldn't have such a tense atmosphere.

"Doctor, the second room from the right."

Nightblade, who was leading the way, stopped and gestured to the Doctor.

"Thank you," the doctor nodded in thanks.

This is the fifth floor of Rhodes Island, and also its prison.

Normally, this place is used to imprison the most heinous criminals, or the most intelligent criminals rarely seen on the continent of Terra. Even sorcerers with Originium Arts capable of rivaling a nation are imprisoned here... Of course, that's impossible.

Rhode Island is just a medical facility.

This is just the Knights Hospitaller.

If there were truly heinous criminals or powerful sorcerers of outrageous evil, their fate would likely be somewhere like the Royal Dungeon of Saint-Germain or the Columbia Prison Island.

As for Rhodes Island's prison... to be honest, it hasn't been put into use for a long time.